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The nationwide general strike in France, now entering its record seventh week, seems to be approaching its crisis point. Despite savage police repression, about a million people are in the streets protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s proposed neoliberal “reform” of France’s retirement system, established at the end of World War II and considered one of the best in the world. At bottom, what is at stake is a whole vision of what kind of society people want to live in – one based on cold market calculation or one based on human solidarity – and neither side shows any sign of willingness to compromise. ... read full story / add a comment

Whatever may be the conclusion of the strike, there is little doubt that the practice of contractualization, which has done so much damage to labor in this country, is facing a mortal challenge from its victims. ... read full story / add a comment

Thousands of Google employees throughout the United States and around the world walked off their jobs yesterday, Nov. 1, “to protest sexual harassment, misconduct, lack of transparency, and a workplace that doesn’t work for everyone.” Beginning in Singapore and working its way around the globe the movement closed Google offices from Mountain View, California, in Boulder and New York, as well as in London, Dublin, Zurich and Berlin. ... read full story / add a comment

The International Labour, Research & Information Group (ILRIG) along with the forty-one (41) community, labour and other civil society organisations, gathered in Johannesburg for the 16th Annual Globalisation School, condemn in the strongest possible terms the violent repression of the legitimate protest engaged in today by casualised/contract workers at the Ekurhuleni Municipality. The protest was organised by the Simunye Workers Forum (SWF), who are part of the School. ... read full story / add a comment

For the sixth straight weekend, hundreds of thousands of Koreans came out in Seoul (and with other Korean cities estimates approaching 2 million people on the streets) to demand the resignation of President Park Geun-hye. This Saturday December 3, the protests marched on the Presidential Blue House. The three opposition parties introduced a bill last week to impeach the President, supported by a majority of the parliament (171 of 300 members), for abuse of power in an influence-peddling scandal. But the vote needs a 2/3 majority and requires a rump of Park's Saenuri party to break and support the opposition to pass the bill.

These are the largest demonstrations in South Korea since the pro-democracy movement of the 1980s. But the street protests are also against the neoliberal reforms Park has pursued and the attacks on the KCTU (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions), and an emphatic statement that all politics is not forming in a populist hard right. The below essays were written just after the fourth demonstration weekend. ... read full story / add a comment

In the light of the convocation of a “congress to refound the I.W.A.” made by the C.N.T.-E., by F.A.U.-Germany and by U.S.I.-Prato Carnico (secessionist), we decided to make some considerations about it along with reproposing our testimony from the 20th I.W.A. Congress of Madrid from December 1996.
The reasons we express ourselves and repropose this documents are closely linked to the motivations with which the three unions propose this congress. ... read full story / add a comment

Since India embraced what trade unions call the LPG route to growth (that is liberalization, privatization and globalization) in 1991, the country has seen 16 general strikes. And the 17th all India workers’ strike falls on September 2nd. The last general strike, observed on 2 September 2015, saw participation from nearly 150 million workers – that's half the population of the entire U.S., or more than the combined population of the UK, Canada and Australia. This year, the unions expect a better turnout given the controversial labour policies pursued by the Narendra Modi-led NDA government. ... read full story / add a comment

I personally make just over $17 an hour, while the average wage of a plow driver is $38,000 a year. And yet you have made it clear that you will not tax the wealthy (like yourself) who can afford it to cover the budget gap which you created. But I do not expect you to necessarily understand the hardships you are asking us to suffer, as I am told you are personally worth ten million dollars. Maybe you don’t understand that taking $36 a paycheck out of my wages (which on average you are proposing for all plow drivers) is the difference between making or missing a mortgage payment, a utility bill, or buying a pair of shoes for the kids. Maybe you cannot understand. ... read full story / add a comment

Thabiso Bopape from a workers' committee that has been involved in ongoing strikes in the Post Office and that founded the Democratic Postal and Communications Union (Depacu) talks about the struggle of casual workers to ban labour brokers and to be directly and permanently employed by the South African Post Office (Sapo).

This discussion took place on 10 October, 2014, and so there have been some developments since then. The strike referred to by Thobiso was called off shortly after the interview, after the Minister intervened to address their demands, but a group of workers organised under the Communication Workers Union (CWU) remains out on strike at the time of publication.... read full story / add a comment

For workers at universities, transformation must improve working conditions, raise wages, defend dignity and allow their full participation in governance of these institutions. Outsourcing and the privatisation of services such as cleaning at universities is against transformation because these measures lower labour standards and create a highly unjust system for workers at these institutions. This perpetuates the legacy of colonialism and apartheid.

Like cleaners in other universities, cleaners at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) – organised under the Persistent Solidarity Forum (PSF) – are in a protracted struggle to secure the rights promised in the Constitution, shape the transformation agenda of the institution and reverse outsourcing of cleaning services and other so-called non-core services. ... read full story / add a comment

Autonomy, occupation, self-management... these long-forgotten terms are back in Turkey since late 2012-early 2013. There have been several factory occupations since last year. The most prominent ones are, among others, Kazova, Greif, Zentiva, Feniş, Moda Socks Factory, Renault, and Şişecam Topkapı workplace occupations. Although both mainstream media and the trade union bureaucracy try to undermine their significance, recent struggles of the workers necessitate greater scrutiny in the wider political-economic context of Turkey; so the meaning of the occupation as well. ... read full story / add a comment